This is probably a correct statement, but it also doesn’t matter in the long run.
As Chalmers said himself, they might not fear him before the game, but during the game is when they realized they might have bitten off more than they could chew.
I also think there is this mythical essence around Michael Jordan that everyone was scared of him, but that wasn’t the case, even if the players were less talented than him.
Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and certainly Isiah Thomas didn’t fear him when they were beating him routinely in the mid-80s.
Even when Jordan was winning his championships, do you think Reggie Miller or Patrick Ewing feared him. Even John Starks felt like he could go toe to toe with him.
Gary Payton, Clyde Drexler, Stockton, Malone, and Charles Barkley did not fear Jordan. They were out there competing. I think the difference comes from this era. You see how friendly the players are off the court with each other.
You didn’t necessarily see that in the previous era, and it gave off the impression that they all hated each other when they were going to the same strip clubs after the game.
Listening to Chalmers’s interview, it doesn’t seem like he is trying to go viral, but he is caught up on the Jordan mystique, and since he played with LeBron, he knows how buddy-buddy LeBron can be with other players.
With that being said, considering LeBron ran the Eastern Conference for about a decade straight, I am sure there were some teams and players that didn’t get a good not sleep when the Cavs or the Heat were coming to town. Even now, when his body allows it, LeBron can still put fear in the heart of opponents. Don’t get it twisted.
Here is what Jayhawk Chalmers had to say.
"Nobody fears Bron"
LeBron’s former teammate Mario Chalmers says NBA players aren’t scared to face Bron 😳
(via @playmaker)pic.twitter.com/odNNa84oa1
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 20, 2023